Far in Southern Asia dragons live on three islands (Cavendish 1387). The dragons are not really dragons at all. They are monitor lizards and their main island is komodo. The islands are tropical and deserty and really hot. The islands are near the equator and that is why the temperature is very high (Encarta). There were sightings of the komodo dragons in Europe but I don’t think they would survive up North. On the islands the dragons live in burrows, caves, and trees. That is were there located

    All animals have specialties and are different looking and that’s what this paragraph is about. The Komodo Dragon is a dark brown when adults and black with a lot of yellow dots when young (Darling 34). When born, they are 8 in. long and the largest is 23 ft. long (Darling 34). They have long sharp claws, saw like teeth, and a yellow tongue. It is so strong and deadly it can eat a lot. It eats 12 meals a year. It smells out of its tongue but it can smell out of its nostrils but not very well (Darling 14). When you walk by a dragon and its eyes are closed, it still can see you because it has an eye on top of its head that can only see shadows (Scamer 24). There are three deadly germs that live in a dragon’s mouth (Darling Pg. 27). I will tell you what the germs do in Hunting/ Defense. They don’t have taste buds except for a few buds in the back of its mouth (Darling 27).  When dragons are eating they eat every thing including the bones. They eat everything because they have very strong body acid. When they are swallowing something their mouth is all plugged up. They can hardly breath out of their nose. They would suffocate but they have a special organ under the teeth (Darling 19). The dragon can smell very well with their tongue and run up to ten miles an hour (Darling 27). When one dragon kills something and doesn’t want to share it they fights with the others. Whichever one loses walks away wounded but if it dies it gets eaten (Darling 28-29). It has been proven by scientist that dragons are the smartest reptile.

    The dragon is a fierce hunter. Once it bites you’re goners. But, it might just whip you with its tail for defense. To scare away enemies or curious animals, it hisses at them. What they mostly eat are monkeys, small deer, goats, wild pigs, water buffalo and human corpses (Lilly 51). They sometimes travel in packs or by itself. The Komodo Dragon chases its prey down if it’s slow and sinks its teeth in the prey’s most vulnerable spot. The dragons aren’t just hunters, they’re scavengers. On Komodo Island people put rocks on the graves so dragons can’t burrow under to eat the dead body (Darling 19). I talked about three germs in the third paragraph; well here is what they do: one is a bacteria that gets in through wounds in the enemy or prey and kills them in three hours. Another one is a flesh-eating bacteria. The last one is a chemical in its spit that stops blood clots and the prey or enemy bleeds to death.

    Dragons don’t really have a home because they travel a lot. They live in packs or by themselves. When they’re eating, the elders eat first and the younger ones eat last (Darling 32). When a male dragon is eating and it sees a female dragon and they both like one another they stay with each other for life in a pack. When they are ready to have babies the male releases a perfume so the female can find him. Then they have babies (Darling 32) After the female dragon burrows under ground and lays her eggs the mother dragon stays with the father dragon and they keep on having babies (Darling 33). Other information about its home life is unknown.

    Long time ago a group of explorers found an island surrounded by sharks and whirlpools. They went to this island to claim it as part of there country. When they got to the island they made camp. The next day they went exploring the island. After a while they said it was a good place to live except the high temperatures. Then they found a huge lizard they were scared out of their wits. The lizard just saw them as another animal so it started chasing them but they out ran it. They got back to their camp and made a sign that said “here be dragons” and they called it a dragon for years. Years later another person went to this island to see these dragons and found out it wasn’t a dragon at all but called it a land crocodile. Then finally they named the island Komodo Island. Then they found out this crocodile was a monitor lizard and called it the Komodo Dragon because it is on the island Komodo and it was huge.